Avoiding the Crudites

Chris Bowlby hears what it's like to eat for Britain from such wined-and-dined luminaries as Chris Patten and Christopher Meyer.

In this episode, discover how at the Tehran Conference in 1943, Stalin was bemused by the array of cutlery stretching out on either side of his plate - eating dinner was so much simpler in post-Revolutionary Russia.

Also, how a game of musical chairs at a British embassy white tie event split opinions among the higher echelons.

Producer: Mark Savage.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2006.